Posted on 07/23/2005 4:09:43 AM PDT by rabair
Blasts kill 83 in Egyptian Red Sea resort Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:37 AM BST
By Tom Perry
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - At least 83 people were killed and 200 injured when car bombs ripped through markets and hotels in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday in the worst attack in Egypt since 1981.
Shaken European tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage in the early hours, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing.
The regional governor said two car bombs and possibly a suitcase bomb had rocked the resort, popular with divers and European holidaymakers.
One blast tore the front off the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of most of the resort's luxury hotels. People were feared trapped in the rubble of the lobby.
A car broke into the hotel compound and exploded in front of the building, South Sinai Governor Mustafa Afifi said.
A senior security source in Sharm el-Sheikh said 83 people were killed and 23 people were in critical condition, from among 35 casualties taken to Cairo for treatment.
Most of the victims were Egyptians but the Tourism Minsirty spokeswoman said Seven non-Egyptians were dead, including a Czech and an Italian, and 20 were injured.
The injured foreigners were nine Italians, five Saudis, three Britons, a Russian, a Ukrainian and an Israeli Arab, spokesman Hala el-Khatib told reporters. But the British Foreign Office in London said that eight Britons were injured.
A group claiming links to the al Qaeda organisation said it carried out the bombings in retaliation for "crimes committed against Muslims", according to an Internet statement.
(follow link to original to read full story)
(Excerpt) Read more at today.reuters.co.uk ...
No, but this was aimed at the tourist trade and the fact security is so kigh in other countries.
The Egyptians better pull out of Muslim lands.
True....
yeah but Mubarak is considered a Secular govt, he has had problems with terrorists hitting tourist locations in the past.
BWAHAHAHAHA! You owe me a keyboard and a chair!....coffee spewn!
WE KILL ALL THESE MUSLIMS FOR THE CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST MUSLIMS!
One was a suitcase bomb, how easy would that be to do here at hotels?
Very!!
You mean there have actually been terror attacks in Egypt before they sent troops to Iraq?
The escalation may just be due to the rise of cell phone technology and internet communication rather than Bush/Blair/Israel.
If the cowardly Europeans had shown a United front agains terrorists when this thing started it would be over now.
They didnt, They showed themselves to be ripe for terrorism and the terrorists have ripened. They have no one to blame but their cowardly leaders. You show a bully you are scared and that bully will have his fun with you.
Let's face the fact that Islam is not a religion anymore than communism is. We see none of them condemning the violence only blaming the US/UK for this. This is world war III no doubt and it will get worse until the free world adopts unfortunately orwellian measures to combat the terror.
Or we could pull the Egyptains out of Egypt and give it to the desert tortoise.
Wasn't Anwar Sadat assasinated by an islamic extremist?
I thought WWWIII was the Cold War, which we won (for the moment).
This is WWIV, ...I think.
call it whatever you wish... it's clear that we do not know our enemy very well.
Yeah, but the existence of an Egyptian ambassador is hardly an act of war from a country that is basically friendly. And I didn't mean to imply a cause and effect out of anything they do... Actually, my the intention was to ridicule those who do. I'm just sick of people acting like terrorism didn't exist before the Iraq war.
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